


FFXV Ficlets

by spelldaggered



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Anger, Angst, Fever, Ficlet Collection, Hallucinations, Hurt Gladiolus Amicitia, Hurt Noctis Lucis Caelum, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Scars, Self-Doubt, Whump, Worried Gladiolus Amicitia, Worried Ignis Scientia, Worried Prompto Argentum
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2019-07-20 20:41:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16145114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spelldaggered/pseuds/spelldaggered
Summary: A collection of FFXV whump ficlets. Various characters and pairings, usually centred around the chocobros.





	1. Gladio & Ignis; Scars

Prompt: _give me your whumpee being super casual about one of their new scars until they’re Not Fine™ and everything seems to overwhelm them at once_

* * *

 Scars were nothing new to him.

He could probably recall how he got each and every one, and there were times he had done just that for Noctis, when he was tired and uncharacteristically affectionate. He’d trace Gladio’s marred skin, and ask for the stories behind them, until he’d been lulled to sleep by twisted but comical fairytales.

Because Gladio lied, of course. Every time. He’d explain the scars away through wild chocobo attacks, or dramatically falling somewhere, or attacking himself with his own spear. 

The truth - that almost all of them were from the enemies he’d dedicated his life to protecting Noct from - was ugly, just like them.

He suspected Noctis knew he wasn’t being truthful, but things were bleak enough on the road; any excuse for some lightheartedness was enough.

When his face had been sliced open, that had been pretty bad. It had been his own fault as well, picking a fight with some drunkards who were loudly criticising the Lucis line one night. Regis and Noctis had both been sleeping peacefully, miles away, while Gladio was attacked with a broken glass bottle for not minding his own business.

He hadn’t regretted it though, not even when he’d showed up on Iggy’s doorstep at two in the morning with blood covering his face and chest.

He’d never regret defending his prince.

His latest scar was nothing, comparatively. Just a deep gash on his upper arm that Noctis had healed quickly, leaving behind just a red, raised line.

It didn’t even hurt.

But as Gladio surveyed himself in the spotty mirror of the dingy motel they’d indulged themselves in for the night, he found himself fixated on it. He stared at it for a long while, before following the rest of the lines on his body, some long-healed, others fairly fresh.

He was covered in scars, and while he’d once proudly worn them as signs of battles fought and won, now he looked at his reflection and saw only weakness.

Gladio was a Shield, but he couldn’t even protect himself.

He began searching frantically for the other scars he couldn’t see in the mirror, looking away to inspect his skin directly, and each one suddenly served as a reminder of how close he’d been to losing, too close. Of how every time he put himself in danger, he endangered Noctis too. Of how so many of these scars were not products of him fighting for his prince, but just of him fighting for his pride, or worse, for the sake of fighting.

Glancing back up, Gladio gazed upon the disfigurement of his face once again, and then punched the mirror with an anguished cry, instantly shattering it.

Immediately he heard movement in the bedroom, and prayed he hadn’t woken Noctis up.

“Gladiolus.” It was Ignis on the other side of the door. “Are you alright?”

Cool, calm, detached as ever.

“Fine,” Gladio snapped, his voice rough. When he looked back up at the shards that remained of the mirror, he was horrified to see that he was crying.

The door creaked open anyway, and then Ignis was surveying the scene; Gladiolus, the mirror fragments on the wall, and his bloody knuckles.

“Shall I-“ Ignis began, gesturing to his hands.

Gladio nodded, then sucked in a quick, shuddering breath without meaning to. If Ignis was alarmed at the man’s tears, he hid it well.

“Gladio?” Iggy asked gently, closing the bathroom door behind him, his hard, calculating features softening.

“I- I can’t-“ he began, but he couldn’t catch his breath, and his head started to feel light, and he was barely aware of Ignis steering him to the edge of the grimy bathtub and forcing him to sit.

Crouching before him, Ignis raised a calloused hand to Gladio’s face, wiping away a tear before cupping his cheek in an unusually tender manner for the Advisor.

“You can,” Iggy assured him, as if he knew where Gladio’s thoughts were already. “We would all be lost without you, not just Noct.”

Gladio clung to the words like a lifeline, letting himself nudge into Iggy’s palm a little longer, and then he roughly wiped his arm across his face, clearing the signs of his self-doubt.

“Thank you,” he said gruffly, standing up, and Iggy took his cue to leave.

Taking a final shuddering breath, Gladio pressed his fingertips to his newest scar, then set his jaw and wandered back out to the bedroom, where Noct and Prompto were still soundly asleep, and Ignis was back to reading the paper as though he’d never moved.

He was a Shield, and his scars proved his worth, he told himself.

Gladiolus hoped that by the time the sun rose, he’d believe it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts/requests are always open over at [spelldaggered.tumblr.com](http://spelldaggered.tumblr.com) for any ficlet you want to see - thanks for reading!


	2. Chocobros; Hallucinating

Prompt: _someone please make your whumpee hallucinate for me_

* * *

 "Thank the gods,” Noctis mumbled one day, staring out to the horizon.

Though they still had plenty of ground to cover, he could see the outline of Altissia forming in the distance, the Regalia rumbling on to its destination. If Noct strained his eyes, he could make out the pale stone of the city’s ancient, beautiful architecture, could see the waterfalls that spilled down the sides of the mountain Altissia sat on. Somehow it already looked  _brighter_ over there. Like the buildings were more golden, and the sky was bluer, and Noct was relieved.

He leaned back, a happy smile on his face.

They were nearing Altissia. Nearing Luna. Nearing the first good thing to happen in weeks.

“What’s up?” Gladio asked immediately, looking down at his charge, currently slouched into his side in the back seat. They’d started the journey with Noctis sat upright, but as time had gone on, he’d grown weaker, more tired, until eventually almost all of his weight was resting on his Shield’s chest.

Noct looked up at him with glazed, unfocused eyes, still pale and sweating, the purple circles beneath his eyes almost bruising at this point.

“I can see it,” Noctis explained, waving a limp arm in the direction they were driving.

“See what?” Prompto asked nervously, twisting round from the passenger seat.

“Altissia,” Noct answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. because it was. 

“Noct?” Ignis asked sharply, still focused on the road ahead but glancing in the rearview mirror and making worried eye contact with Gladio. He silently cursed as he noticed how much worse Noctis looked than when they’d set off.

“There’s nothing there, buddy,” Prompto said gently.

“You need to borrow Specs’ …specs,” Noctis giggled, mostly to himself, before setting his sights on the gleaming city once again. Gods, he was so tired. He hoped Luna would let him have his old bed tonight. He wanted a good sleep.

His three companions exchanged worried glances, and then looked ahead, at the bleak and desolate landscape before them. Ignis had been driving for hours, and nothing had changed. There was nothing  _to_ change. The grass was dead, the trees were bare, and the only thing that loomed round every corner were more caves, hiding untold horrors they’d already had a lifetime’s worth of.

“We’re not… going to Altissia, Noctis,” Gladio said, sounding helpless for the first time in a while. That was almost more startling to Ignis and Prompto than Noctis’ apparent fevered hallucinations.

“But, Luna,” noctis murmured, sounding like he was about to say something else, but running out of energy. “Luna.”

Gladio tightened his grip around the prince, while Prompto turned away, trying to blink away tears. After everything that had happened, everyone they’d lost… they couldn’t lose Noct now too.

Ignis just stared resolutely at the road, driving, always driving, driving his prince away from everything, praying they were driving  _towards_ something, anything.

They’d been driving back from the nightmare that had been their stop in Altissia when the daemons had attacked, something venomous finding its way into Noct’s system, slowly breaking him down from the inside. As if it weren’t enough that they had left a great city in ruins, lost the battle and what could have been a strong ally, had watched Luna die as Noctis lay unconscious next to her.

Now Noctis was going to follow his betrothed into the afterlife, from poison of all things.

Ignis pressed his foot on the accelerator a little harder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts/requests are always open over at [spelldaggered.tumblr.com](http://spelldaggered.tumblr.com) for any ficlet you want to see - thanks for reading!


	3. Prompto & Noctis; Spaces

Prompt: _does your character feel safe in small, dark, quiet spaces?_

* * *

Noctis _does_ and Prompto _does not_ and it makes life difficult at times.  
  
Especially out on the road, where small, dark, quiet spaces are few and far between unless they’re thirty feet underground in a maze of crumbling caves, and even Noctis can’t pretend to feel safe then, not with the threat of daemons, or worse, round every corner.  
  
But Noct has had enough of _big_ and _impressive_ and _intimidating_ to last him a lifetime. He was always happiest tucked away in little nooks and crannies in the citadel. once Ignis found him behind a tapestry, and deducted ten points from their silly game for the lack of imagination.  
  
Noctis finds it hard to believe there was ever a time that life was so good, he and Ignis could play _games_.  
  
So now, when he’s feeling overwhelmed, when this burden that he doesn’t want, _please gods take it from him_ , becomes too much, Noctis seeks desperately for somewhere small. and dark. And quiet. Where he is nothing and no one but Noctis in that moment, and nothing and no one matters.  
  
Prompto can’t bear to see Noctis when he’s like that. When his limp is more pronounced because his back can’t take all the fighting. When he’s dead on his feet because they’ve all sapped his magic, _again_. When his eyes take on that haunted look, like Noctis has nothing left to live for - it’s like a knife to Prom’s heart.  
  
So he tries to follow him, but it’s hard. _It’s so hard._  
  
Because small and dark and quiet often means cold and lonely and the _unknown_ , and it reminds Prompto of something, but the worst part is, he can’t even put his finger on it. He just knows that at some point in his life, he has learned to dread the dark, to fear the quiet, and that is instilled in his bones.  
  
So sometimes he follows Noctis, but sometimes he doesn’t. Because Noctis has enough to deal with, he doesn’t need Prompto freaking out on him as well. Noct goes there to get some quiet, and it’s taken Prom many, many years to figure out how and why quiet can sometimes be good, especially for his prince.  
  
No, Prompto prefers the open. _The wide open._ The grassy fields that stretch as far as the eye can see, home to friend and foe alike. When they set up camp on top of a sprawling mountain ridge, and it’s a jog to get from the tents to the trees to gather wood. When they’re sitting in the Regalia, and the wind is rushing through his hair, and he feels so free, so unlimited, like he’s exactly where he’s supposed to be.  
  
Like he’s not _trapped_.  
  
But Noctis just sees the potential for danger. The potential to get overcome by it all, and shut down.  
  
So yes, life is difficult at times. But every day is a fight for survival at the moment, and when they catch each other’s eyes, even after the longest, hardest day, when everyone is tetchy and hungry and nursing battle wounds, they know they’ll keep doing whatever the other needs them to do.  
  
That’s how it works.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts/requests are always open over at [spelldaggered.tumblr.com](http://spelldaggered.tumblr.com) for any ficlet you want to see - thanks for reading!


End file.
